From Banking To Bouquets: Meet Two Wall Streeters Giving Up Finance For Flowers

From banking to bouquets, Louis Brunet and Olivier Plusquellec.Louis Brunet wakes up much earlier than he used to, but he no longer hits the snooze button on his alarm.

At his new office in the heart of the the flower district, which is a very small section of Manhattan found on 28th Street near 6th Avenue, we discuss the difference between his former life -- as a banker -- and his new life, as a florist.

"It's way easier for me to get up in the morning than when I worked at the bank," Louis told us Ode's headquarters. "Then, I was snoozing my alarm all the time. Now, I don't snooze." Instead, he wakes up promptly at 6.30 am, and gets to work.

Louis' partner, Olivier Plusquellec, is still working for the French investment bank that Louis quit last year.

Ode's irreverant, youthful attitude is evident in the merchandizing, and is another way for it to differentiate itself. Ode a la ROSEThe idea for Ode a la Rose -- a rose specialist that caters to urban professionals looking for high quality flowers, which look beautiful, without the obscene price-tag attached by so many online florists -- was Olivier's.

He saw there was a market, but no product, for people like himself -- those with disposable income, that didn't want to buy a cheap, soon-to-expire deli bouquet, but also felt ripped off paying between $100 and $200 for a decent bunch of flowers just because it was the only other option.

The business is growing slowly, with more people learning about the business through word of mouth and Google search, like this delivery to The Standard Hotel.Ode a la Rose on FacebookPut simply, Ode a la Rose is a "hip" online florist. Louis and Olivier, both natives of France, would probably cringe at that description. But the fact is the arrangement and quality of their roses, and the modern and irreverent aesthetic of the product, immediately brings that word to mind.

Olivier and Louis railed off a list of what they hated about the limited online floral options.

"Most of the time, it will be red roses with white foliage.. Yeah, always red and white, and we hate those... And you're dealing with intermediaries, not florists.... So they don't care really about the quality... Yes, they take a huge commission and the quality is low because it's not regular customers..."

Quality and elegance can be found on the streets New York. But it's often for a price. And, what Olivier and Louis says differentiates them -- apart from price -- from those florists, is they have brought French floral techniques to New Yorkers. They talked about and showed us arrangements of flowers that, admittedly, we'd never heard of, like the round bouquet.

French, Finance Roots

Katya Wachtel for Business Insider Louis was born and raised in Paris. He studied at Paris Dauphine University, before graduating with a Masters in Finance at the EM Lyon, a top French business school.

Olivier was also born in France, but grew up in New York, Paris, Madrid and London, thanks to his father -- an expatriate banker who worked for various French companies. Olivier graduated from HEC in Paris, also one of France's top business schools.

Olivier, who has now worked in banking for ten years, said he saw work in the financial sector "as a means rather than an end." Working in finance was something he said he "needed to go through" before he could pursue his own business projects.

Louis pursued finance because he had studied it, and while he enjoyed the work, he said he had never been thrilled by the idea of working for others, on what he called one-shot deals. He increasingly found he wanted to be his own boss.

"I enjoyed walking through the doors in the morning at the bank because I knew I was going to have a good time with my colleagues, which is probably what I miss the most in my current job," Louis said.

"But today I enjoy it much more because I feel I'm doing something that matters for me and that I control myself. At the bank, although I was working on very interesting companies and deals, they weren't mine so in the end I didn't really care about what was going on. This is the huge difference between running your own business and working for others."

Which is why when Olivier presented the idea to Louis, Louis had little hesitation in leaving the bank, even knowing he would take an enormous pay-cut. For the time being at least.

From banking to bouquets

Katya Wachtel for Business Insider The Ode a la Rose office is basically one room on the third floor of a building on 28th Street in Chelsea, a stretch of road that is probably the only part of New York that manages to smells good all summer long.

The office is far cry from the French investment bank in midtown where Louis used to spend his days, which had sweeping views of the southern end of Manhattan, from Central Park to his current workplace.

Apart from the outlook, and the free lunches, Louis says he misses working with bankers, who work and understand a rigorous business environment. "People we have to work with today, do not have this rigorous background in their way of doing business," he said.

Both of the young men admit their background in banking makes them better entrepreneurs, especially when it comes to fundraising. "We're speaking the same language," Louis said.

"We know what their concerns are," Olivier added. "It's reassuring for them too."

They say there are not looking to be a neighborhood florist. "We want to develop a national network," Olivier said. They are currently in a friends and family fundraising round.

A different kind of stress

Later that day, back at the Business Insider office, we were watching President Obama discuss yet another debt ceiling impasse, and we thought that at the very least, the Ode a la Rose boys must look at what's going on in finance now -- in Greece and Europe, the debt ceiling, layoffs -- and feel so happy to be out of that world. Or in Olivier's case, about to be out of it. I emailed them and asked.

"Actually it makes us even more nervous," Olivier replied. "We are currently in the process of raising funds and if the Euro zone implodes, this would likely have a detrimental impact on us."

Louis, who's following the European crisis with a hawk-eye, was more optimistic: "I guess I'm an eternal optimist and I always come to think people/governments will find solutions (even if they have to make hard decisions)."

Now their stress takes a different form.

"I'm not 'stressed out' as much," Louis said when we first visited the Ode a la Rose office. "But I'm always anxious. Right now its 24 hrs a day."

But he maintains that "it's much more fun" now, than when he was a Wall Streeter, despite the anxiety over the startup's success.

"And," he reminded us as we walked out onto 28th Street, on a particularly hot day, "I can wear shorts to work now."